KARACHI, the world`s 12th most populous city, produces 140,000-160,000 tonnes of waste per day. Around 70 per cent of this waste ends up in three landfill sites lying on the city`s outskirts, while the restis eitherburned close to residential areas, or left unattended to decay in the streets, posing serious environmental and healthhazards.

Before reaching the landfills, the collected garbage passes through transfer sites where Afghan children often pick recyclables by hand, an informal and exploitative system that reflects the city`s lack of a formal waste reduction strategy. This is in sharp contrast to the global waste management strategy of the 4Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover.

Thanks to our traditional practices, the people of Karachi are relatively efficient in reducing and reusing things, like sharing clothes within families.

However, as we move to the recycling aspect, we are way behind the nations that have mastered the art of circular pattern.

Consider the example of Mississauga, a city in Canada, that has developed an integrated waste management facilitywhich consists of three sub-facilities: the material recovery facility for recycling, the waste transfer station for garbage, and the primary composting facility for organic composting. They have a target of diverting 75pc of residential waste away from landfills by 2034.

Karachi has no such formal system, but it is never too late to make a beginning.

The process of sorting waste at home involves keeping three separate coloured waste bins for specific types of waste: one for items that can be recycled, one for food waste, such as eggshells and banana peels, and the last one for the non-recyclables meant for landfills.

This small action, if widely adopted, can lay the groundwork for a broader waste management system that can lead to the development of waste management facility like the one in Mississauga through a public-private partnership.

Syed Muhammad Irtiza Wahidi Karachi